March 28, 2020

About me

  • Liberal Arts academic background
  • Variety of industries before MSDS
  • Now data analyst & graduate TA
  • Also really like doggos

“hi here’s a cute dog pic yay R thank you for coming to my talk byebye”

How I Got Started in R

SPOILER ALERT: 0/10 do not recommend

  • Enrolled in a data science masters degree with zero programming experience
  • Began curriculum with two intro-level python courses
  • Quickly realized I’m in over my head
  • Came thisclose to quitting
  • Rallied and managed to complete my first quarter
  • Switched to R for the remainder of my grad program

one of my first R things:

How I Got Better in R

  • Did a bunch of grad school assignments
  • Googled a LOT of things and wore out cmd+c/cmd+v
  • Graduated with an MSDS feeling pretty good about my skills
  • Moved into my company’s data science dept; felt less good about my skills
  • Worked daily in R for last year+ with support of veteran R users

my latest cool R thing!

My Best Advice?

  • Dive in!

First Things First

  • R (open source programming language)
  • RStudio (IDE)
  • Some data
  • Learning goals

A Warning…

Terms You Should Know

  • CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network)
  • environment
  • working directory
  • project
  • install.packages(…)
  • library(…)
  • ?…
  • browseVignettes(…)
  • #comment

Useful Packages

Resources

Parting Thoughts

  • Set small, specific goals so you don’t get overwhelmed
  • Many, many ways to do the same thing
  • Use #comments liberally
  • Remember: even the experts Google for answers… all. the. time.

ADOPTABLE KITTEHS!!
(you know need a quarantine friend or two)

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